Mayans lined walkways leading to their temples with intricate plants and flowers, the Romans created courtyard gardens within the boundaries of their properties for the enjoyment of their family and friends, and royalty would plant profuse amounts of flowers and trees as a symbol of their wealth. In the 17th century in Jamaica, slave plantation owners would line the walkways to their mansions with Royal Palms. Throughout history, landscaping was used as a sign of not only beauty, but also wealth, power and respect.
Hardscaping is the use of the terrain itself, or rocks and stones brought in from other places. Nowadays it’s mostly just rocks and stone walls for aesthetics, but hardscaping was also used for practical purposes. The most obvious example of this is the Great Wall of China. Qin Shi Huang unified all the states of China in 221 B.C. and to block invasions from the Xiongnu people in the north, ordered that the wall be built to help protect his new borders from enemies. Of course in this case hardscaping was completely utilitarian.
Another example of hardscaping is the mystical Stonehenge of England. The mystery of these rocks is that though they are in England now, they actually came from Whales, which means that the builders somehow transported these rocks over 200 miles. This has led to many theories of everything from aliens to astronomical miracles. Most likely these creators were just very dedicated (or well-paid) individuals committed to finishing the product.
Nowadays, from the San Joaquin Valley of California to New York’s Hudson Valley, landscaping and hardscaping are now used for personal homes and commercial businesses as a way to improve the quality of peoples’ physical surroundings and to give a sense of nature in an increasingly material world.
Tag: England
What is Landscaping Gardening
By definition, landscape gardening, or garden landscaping is the design of public and outdoor environments to meet specific requirements or objectives. These objectives may involve, in the instance of a public park for example, the landscaping of an area to include seating for park users, lighting, and a playground for children. Landscape gardening is also known as landscape architecture, which is perhaps a more descriptive term, since landscape gardeners will typically design, plan, construct, and oversee the development of an area of landscape that they have been contracted to work on. Many additional services are often offered by landscapers due to the nature of the work, which can include construction, carpentry, tree surgery, fencing, and ground working.
The history of landscape gardening unsurprisingly derives from the design, planning and management of large estates, manors, royal palaces and residencies. During the 18th and 19th centuries, demand grew for the design of increasingly lavish and decadent gardens among the royal palaces and noble residencies. It is thanks to these commissions that we can now enjoy such delights as the gardens of the Palace of Versailles in France, designed by the famous Andr Le Ntre, and the beautiful gardens of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England.
Throughout the 19th century, the need for urban planning grew with the rapid development and growth of many cities. The term -landscape architect’ first began to be used by professionals in 1863 when Frederick Law Olmsted adopted the term. Olmsted was in fact responsible for defining many early practises of American landscape architecture in some of his great commissions, which include the famous Central Park in New York City.
Today in the UK, the Landscape Institute (LI) is responsible for promoting and regulating the profession of landscape gardening and landscape architecture. It currently has approximately 6,000 members.
RVDM Landscaping offers a comprehensive range of expert landscape gardening services including ground working and construction services.